COVID-19: ZoraBots makes all its James robots available to Belgium’s retirement homes
ZoraBots announced its decision to make all its James robots available to retirement homes and healthcare professionals. While the coronavirus forces the competent authorities to take decisions for containment and to ban visits in retirement homes, ZoraBots has decided to lend its robots free of charge so that seniors and their families can stay in touch. Unlike tablets and smartphones, the James robot is mobile and voice-activated: it can go from room to room and requires no contact from patients who will be able to make video calls with no danger to their health. A solution for maintaining absolutely essential social contact. ZoraBots launched the COVID19 BOTS UNION, another solidary initiative calling for a global project clustering among all robotics players and experts throughout the world to confront the spread and the impacts of the virus.
The propagation of coronavirus affects society as a whole, including all sectors and all generations. The consequences for seniors must not be underestimated. All the competent regional authorities in Belgium (Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels-Capital) continue to announce, confirm or reinforce precautionary measures that prohibit or severely limit visiting hours. How to maintain social contact - an important element of medical care - is an important issue. Given the urgency, ZoraBots, the Ostend-based company specialised in humanoid robotics, has decided to lend James robots to seniors and healthcare professionals in the country’s retirement homes. James is mobile and requires noL physical contact. Residents will be able stay in touch with their relatives and friends.
“We created our company because we are absolutely convinced that robots can be beneficial to humans and provide real services. Our robots have been deployed in many health establishments for over five years. They are already participating in healthcare programmes,” explain Fabrice Goffin and Tommy Deblieck, Zorabots two CEOs.
“We felt urged to act given the spread of Covid-19 and the increasing sense of isolation for our elderly population. The idea to lend our James robots free of charge to help seniors maintain social contact with the best possible hygiene conditions came naturally.”
James robots from ZoraBots will be made available free of charge to retirement homes in Belgium throughout the entire restriction period. “Our aim is to be helpful and reactive. Establishments can simply contact us, and for as long as our means permit, we will deliver and lend a robot with an extremely simplified user interface for no charge whatsoever,” continue the company’s founders and leaders. Many elderly people already suffer from loneliness. We must act to ensure this is not aggravated. It is important to take into account the moral and social
consequences for the most vulnerable sectors of the population. As a worldwideplayer in Robotics, ZoraBots is willing to exert its full efforts to sustain this momentum. The company works with 16 distributors around the world and is already urging them to follow suit: "We already have promising feedbacks ".
How can the James robot help?
James is a mobile robot that can move independently from room to room. Helped by a healthcare professional, residents will be able to receive a telephone call from their family or friends, with or without video. To stay in touch and to stay safe. “We have developed a simplified interface to provide a seamless service with optimal autonomy in healthcare establishments in a very short time,” explain Tommy Deblieck and Fabrice Goffin. As well as being autonomous and easy to use, the advantage of this particular device is that it requires no physical contact. As a result, the risk of spreading the virus generated by sharing tools and devices such as a tablets, phones or laptops is significantly reduced. Only voice control is required.